By Jonathan Paoli
President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law two pieces of legislation – the Second Adjustments Appropriation Bill and the Electoral Matters Amendment Bill – both that will have a profound effect on the finances of political parties.
Describing the legislation as being ‘tangible’ examples that provide material support for a democratic culture, the bills will expand the financial resources available to independent candidates and representatives, amongst others.
“The Second Adjustments Appropriation bill provides for a net movement of R290 million across functions and economic classifications in line with the requirements of the state.
“Furthermore, the Bill provides additional financial support to a number of departments and institutions, including R200 million to the Department of Home Affairs for the purpose of transferring the money to the Independent Electoral Commission for the Represented Political Parties Fund,” the Presidency said.
The resources in the fund are to be provided annually from the National Revenue Fund
and expected to be distributed to political parties represented in both the national and
provincial legislatures.
“By providing for this funding, the Second Adjustments Appropriation bill gives effect to the provision of section 236 of the Constitution, which directs that national legislation must provide for the funding of political parties participating in national and provincial legislatures on an equitable and proportional basis,” the presidency said.
The second piece of legislation – the Electoral Matters Amendment bill – amends the Political Party Funding Act and regulates the private and public funding of independent candidates and independent representatives.
“The Bill makes consequential amendments to the Electoral Act, the Electoral Commission Act and other relevant legislation, which arise from the introduction of independent candidates and independent representatives in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures,” the presidency said.
The new legislation also provides for independent representatives to receive funds from the Multi-Party Democracy Fund, which is administered by the Independent Electoral Commission.
“While the Represented Political Parties Fund is resourced by the fiscus, the Multi-Party Democracy Fund aims to raise and distribute donated funds from the private sector to represented political parties. The fund will now include independent candidates,” the presidency said.
It removes the current limit of R100 000 on donations to political parties and the threshold for declaring these donations as prescribed in the Political Party Funding Act, and now confers the power to the president on instruction from the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the IEC released the Second Quarter Disclosure report in which six political parties made donation declarations for a total amount of R41 093 473.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) came top of the list with declared donations of R36 388 690, followed by ActionSA with R3 458 000 and the ANC with R778 309.
Interestingly the largest donation of R15 million to the DA, was received from an entity known as Fynbos Kapitaal Proprietary Limited, not to be confused with Fynbos Ekwiteit (Pty) Ltd, which also made a large donation to the party in the first quarter; and the second largest donation of R10 million came from De Beers heiress Mary Slack (nee Oppenheimer).
Other large donations declared by the party were received from Martin Moshal (R5million), D Barnes (R3 million) and an international entity known as the Danish Liberal Democracy Programme (R1 478 230.02).
INSIDE POLITICS
